Investing.com – Japan equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Shipbuilding, Gas & Water and Precision Instruments sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.30%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (TYO:7003), which rose 3.57% or 19.00 points to trade at 551.00 at the close. Kyocera Corp. (TYO:6971) added 2.52% or 201.00 points to end at 8,185.00 and Rakuten Inc (TYO:4755) was up 2.22% or 13.10 points to 602.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co Ltd (TYO:4506), which lost 4.89% or 24.00 points to trade at 467.00 in late trade. Kobe Steel, Ltd. (TYO:5406) declined 4.30% or 76.50 points to end at 1,703.50 and Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (TYO:3382) shed 3.83% or 219.00 points to 5,500.00.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2108 to 1487 and 268 ended unchanged on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 2.90% to 17.36.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for January delivery was up 0.20% or 0.15 to $76.56 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in February rose 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $81.48 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract rose 0.29% or 6.00 to trade at $2,046.00 a troy ounce.
USD/JPY was down 0.25% to 147.10, while EUR/JPY fell 0.18% to 161.82.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 102.54.